Website of Dublin Tram System Hacked

The website of Luas, the tram system in Dublin, Ireland, was hacked on Thursday by an individual claiming to have also gained access to information stored on the organization’s systems.

The hacker defaced the website and posted a message demanding the payment of 1 bitcoin (currently worth nearly $3,800) within 5 days. If the ransom demand is not met, he threatened to “publish all data and send emails to [Luas] users.”

“Some time ago I wrote that you have serious security holes. You didn’t reply. The next time someone talks to you, press the reply button,” the hacker wrote on the defaced site.

Shortly after the defacement took place, Luas warned customers not to access its website “due to an ongoing issue.” It later admitted that the site had been compromised.

The Luas website is still offline at the time of writing. The bitcoin address provided by the hacker for paying the ransom has not received any funds, which means the organization has not paid up.

It’s unclear what type of information the hacker may have obtained. It’s worth noting, however, that Luas customers are asked for their name, mobile phone number and email address when using the contact form on the organization’s website.

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.